STATCOUNTER

August 2018

When you’re preparing for a presentation you undoubtedly have Googled “How to give a good speech.” And you have gotten useful, though often contradictory advice. Use PowerPoint/don’t use PowerPoint. Use images/Use type only. No more than three, four, six words on a slide.

Those are all, though, just the mechanics of the presentation. The essence of a memorable presentation is the idea. And for a successful presentation, all you need is a good I.D.E.A.

Inspire

Demonstrate

Educate

Amuse

Inspire: Get people keyed up. Make them so enthusiastic, they can’t wait to get out of the auditorium and start doing amazing things. Make certain they understand the advantage of doing/buying what you are presenting.

Demonstrate: Tell a story. Give examples of what you are talking about. Use relevant case histories. It’s “Show and Tell” time.

Educate: Be a teacher. The audience is your class, you are the professor, or why would they be listening to you? They want to learn. Your job is to teach.

Amuse: Humor makes even the dullest subject interesting. Don’t be monotonous or boring. Avoid jokes that are dated, or have no relevance to your point. If you are uncomfortable with humor, than create your own “Top ten reasons” list, or something else your listeners know they are supposed to laugh at.

There you have it. Four simple points to help make your next presentation a little better.

There’s an old Jewish anecdote that goes like this: Two men are having a major argument, and call upon the local Rabbi to settle the dispute. The first man presents his case; the Rabbi listens, and says, “You know, you’re right.” But then the second man gives his version, which completely contradicts the first man. The Rabbi then states, “You know, you’re right.”

An onlooker who had heard the entire discussion points out to the Rabbi that they both can’t be correct. The Rabbi ponders briefly, and then gives his final opinion, “You know, you’re right too.”

When it comes to opinions as to what is proper and correct, there is rarely any “100%, No Doubt, Guaranteed, Unarguably Right.” Not even among the experts, and certainly not in your marketing communications.

From concepts to tweaking, there are few rules and absolutes. Should the poster you are putting up have a border of 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, or 1/4 inch? Should you use the full word “and” or an ampersand in the headline? What shade of blue works best?

Save your uncertainty for the important matters; be wary of wasting time on trying to make the little things “right.” Those things simply don’t make a real difference.

“But,” you say, “Sometimes the difference a small tweak can make is a big difference.” Well, that’s right.

“And,” you add, “Sometimes delaying a judgment while you examine all the possible fine-tunings does nothing but postpone the decision, without resulting in a better solution.” O.K., that’s right too.

“But,” you say, “You can’t always tell which are the important issues, and which details you shouldn’t waste time on.”

There is now a paperback version of And I Have To Pay For The F*cking Flowers? available on Amazon.

It is for those of you who loved the book, but felt that they would look cheap if they gave a Kindle eBook that retailed for $2.99 as a gift. So there is now a more expensive option.

You can now spend $12.99 and purchase a glossy covered paperback version, a more fitting format perhaps for a thoughtful gift to the FOB.

Either way, And I Have To Pay For The F*cking Flowers? provides important guidance to the two financial predicaments that face the Father of the Bride (FOB).

One problem is the attempt of the groom’s family to move as many of the wedding expenditures as possible to the FOB’s side of the wallet. This does not mean they are all cheap bastards. (But my guide assumes that they are.)

Another hitch is that any time the word “wedding” is used as part of a sentence, the price quoted is marked up higher than a bottle of water in the Sahara desert.

For the Father of the Bride, the insights in this guide will minimize stress and aggravation, since he will be on full red alert.

If you are the FOB, have been the FOB, will be the FOB, if you are on the groom’s side, the bride’s side, part of the wedding party, a guest, engaged or if you simply like to laugh out loud, then And I Have To Pay For The F*cking Flowers? is a perfect gift.

The book, in either format, is available here. Read it, review it (please) and tell your friends.

There is a story about the author who was told by his agent that many best selling novels had one of these three themes: politics, medicine or people’s pets. So the author went home and titled his next book, “Lincoln’s Doctor’s Dog.”

Similarly, there is a lot of advice out there on how to increase the number of hits on your blog; search engine optimization (SEO) insights to make your posts more popular.

In my experience, along with keywords and links to other sites, the heading of your post plays a big part in attracting visitors. At least that is what I discovered when I used the name Alec Baldwin in the headline of a post. My stats for visitor activity went through the (admittedly single story) roof. While I was delighted with the number of visitors, I noticed that many didn’t spend much time on my blog. They came looking for information about Alec Baldwin, not marketing information or creativity. I am sure it felt like bait and switch to them.

So what are you reaching for? Numbers or relevance? More random visitor activity or an appropriate audience of perhaps a smaller size? Sure, getting both is ideal, but if you had to pick one?